Arabic fourth most popular language

Arabic fourth most popular language

Riyadh-based King Abdullah International Center for Arabic Language (KAICAL) has disclosed that Arabic ranked fourth among the major international languages.Quoting a report, KAICAL said that according to a study on languages, Chinese is the most widely spoken language. However, English occupies the top slot in terms of the number of countries that speak the language, followed by Arabic.The study revealed that although the number of languages in the world stands at 7,102, the European continent has only 286 languages.A total of 2,301 languages are spoken in Asia, 2,138 in Africa, 1,313 in the Pacific region and 1,064 languages in the Americas.According to the study by Ulrich Ammon, professor of languages at the University of Duesseldorf, about two-third of the world’s population speaks 12 major languages.According to Ammon, who took 15 years to complete his project, 1.39 billion people speak Chinese, with all its dialects; while 588 million people speak Urdu followed 527 million speakers of English and 467 million Arabic.Spanish is the fifth major international language spoken by 389 million people, followed by Bengali with 250 million speakers.The rest of the languages are: Russian (254 million), Portuguese (193 million), German (132 million), Japanese (123 million), French (118 million) and Italian (67 million), according to the report published by “The Washington Post”English is spoken in 101 countries, followed by Arabic in 60 countries, French (51 countries), Chinese (33), Spanish (31), Persian (29), German (18), Russian (16), Malay (13) and Portuguese (12 countries).

Crown Prince: Future opportunities between Saudi Arabia and China are very big

Saudi Arabia and China signed economic cooperation agreements worth a total of $28 billion at a joint investment forum

The crown prince presided at a China-Saudi cooperation forum that concluded with 12 agreements on cooperation

Updated 20 min 7 sec ago

Arab News

February 22, 2019 15:24

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RIYADH: Future opportunities between Saudi Arabia and China are very big, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Friday during his visit to China.

Citing a 33 percent increase in bilateral trade last year, the crown prince added that high-level contacts were paying off in areas from commerce to security and defense.
"Saudi Arabia's relations with China can be traced back a very long time in the past," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Xi Jinping at their meeting in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of the Chinese capital.

Meanwhile, the Chinese president stressed his country's keenness on joint efforts with Saudi Arabia to support strategic relations between the two countries. He added that there has been coordination with Saudi Arabia on international and regional issues in recent years.

The crown prince earlier Friday presided at a China-Saudi cooperation forum that concluded with 12 agreements on cooperation in fields ranging from petroleum and the chemical industry to investment, renewable energy and counter-terrorism. Saudi Arabia is one of China's top crude oil suppliers and an important market for its exports.

Saudi Arabia and China also signed economic cooperation agreements worth a total of $28 billion at a joint investment forum. 35 agreements had been signed at the forum, held by Saudi Arabia’s investment agency SAGIA. Four licenses for Chinese companies were awarded at the forum.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also pledged Saudi Arabia's backing for China's gargantuan "belt and road" infrastructure project, saying he was willing to link it with the kingdom's Vision 2030 plans— a blueprint put forth by the crown prince to wean the kingdom off its reliance on oil, particularly as sustainable sources of energy become cheaper and more popular.
The Crown Prince's visit follows trips to India and Pakistan, which send millions of laborers to Saudi Arabia and are seeking closer economic ties.